Omar not fully aware of accession of J-K: BJP

Reacting to National Conference working president Omar Abdullah’s statement that accession of Jammu and Kashmir with India was “conditional”, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday said he was not fully aware of the issue.

Reacting to National Conference working president Omar Abdullah’s statement that accession of Jammu and Kashmir with India was “conditional”, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday said he was not fully aware of the issue.

In a statement issued here, BJP spokesperson Virender Gupta said with such statements, Omar was only befooling himself, and had probably didn’t have full knowledge of the issue as NC didn’t have any role in the accession.

“As per the Government of India Act of 1935, kings of princely states had the right to accede either to Indian Dominion or Pakistan and under the act, maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir by using his authority signed the Instrument of Accession on October 26, 1947,” Gupta clarified.

Omar on Wednesday had said accession of Jammu and Kashmir with India had taken place under “special” circumstances and it could not be compared with other states that acceded to India.

“The accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India took place under certain conditions and you cannot compare it with Maharashtra, Bihar and West Bengal as they joined India without any conditions,” former chief minister Omar Abdullah had said.

The BJP spokesperson said Omar probably didn’t know that his grandfather and former chief minister Sheikh Abdullah had himself endorsed the accession and constituent assembly of the state in para-2 of state constitution in 1956 clearly mentioned that the territory of the state as it existed in 1947 before the Pak aggression was an integral and inseparable part of India.